AFTER a blistering start to the season Nigel Edwards next week goes in search of the one piece of silverware he covets most - the Amateur Championship.

Until 1980 Wales had never boasted an amateur champion then they there were four from the principality in a glorious decade - Duncan Evans (1980), Phil Parkin (1983), Paul Mayo (1987) and Stephen Dodd (1989) - but since then there has been a barren 17 years.

Edwards went to Royal Birkdale with high hopes of victory last year and seemed to be going strongly until teenage sensation Oliver Fisher put him out in the quarter-finals.

This time the championship is being contested over the famous Open links of Royal St George's at Sandwich on the Kent coast and Edwards, bang in form, will be hopeful of ending that barren Welsh run.

The Whitchurch star began the season sensationally by winning both the South African Amateur Open Championships and the prestigious Sherry Cup in Spain. He also finished a highly creditable fourth in the St Andrews Links Trophy tournament last weekend, setting a new course record of 64 along the way.

This is not Walker Cup year, but in August Great Britain and Ireland play the Continent of Europe in the St Andrews Trophy match in the Czech Republic.

Edwards is a certainty for that team and he will also spearhead Wales' charge in the Eisenhower Trophy World Team Championship in South Africa in October.

And he would dearly love to travel as the Amateur champion. "This is one event that every player really wants to win, but is obviously a tough one," said Edwards.

Tim Dykes is another player with serious ambitions and on his day is capable of beating the best, while Royal Porthcawl's Rhys Davies, back from Tennessee University after another amazing year where he finished the fourth-ranked college golfer in the United States, could be a serious threat.

Davies, named a first-team All-American for the second year running, also seems a certainty for both the St Andrews Trophy team and the Welsh line-up for South Africa.

Aberdare-based Chris Cousins, Zac Gould, Cennydd Mills, 2004 Welsh champion Ryan Thomas and Llewellyn Matthews are among other players determined to make an impact in Kent.

The 256 competitors play one round on Monday, another 18 holes on Tuesday and then the leading 64 and those tying go forward to the knockout stages ending in the 36-hole final a week tomorrow.

Princes, the neighbouring course of St Georges will be used as the other qualifying links.

Craig Evans won the Aberconway Trophy over the Maesdu and Conwy courses to collect 100 Konica Order of Merit points which took him into third place.

The West Monmouthshire golfer had rounds of 73, 80, 74 and 72 for a 299 aggregate and a three-stroke victory over Pontypridd's Luke Thomas. Prestatyn teenager Jason Shufflebotham finished third.